116 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
fifteen years, though the bull was changed every year. It is singu¬ 
lar, that when they produced a bull calf, it was in the same year. 
Under similar circumstances, a great number of males have been 
produced by the same cow in succession, but not to the same 
extent. 
Breeds are likewise distinguished by the quality of tlieirflesh. In 
some kinds it is coarse, hard, and fibrous; in others of a, finer grain 
or texture. In some breeds also, the flavor of the meat is superior ; 
the gravy they produce, instead of being white and insipid, is high 
colored, well flavored, and rich; and the fat is intermixed among 
the fibres of the muscles, giving the meat a streaked, or marbled 
appearance. Breeds whose flesh have these properties, are peculi¬ 
arly valuable. Hence two animals of nearly the same degree of 
fatness and weight, and who could be fed at nearly the same ex¬ 
pense to the husbandman, will sell at very different prices, merely 
from the known character of their meat. 
A disposition to fatten is a great object in animals destined for 
the shambles. Some animals possess this property during the 
whole progress of their lives, while in others, it only takes place at 
a more advanced period, when they have attained their full growth, 
and are furnished at the same time with a suitable supply of food. 
There are in this respect other distinctions; most sorts of cattle 
and sheep, which have been bred in hilly countries, will become fat 
on low land pastures, on which the more refined breeds would bare¬ 
ly five; some animals take on fat very quickly, when the proper 
food has been supplied, and some individuals have been found, even 
in the same breed, which have, in a given time, consumed the least 
proportional weight of the same kind of food, yet have become fat 
at the quickest rate. Even in the human race, with little food, 
some will grow immoderately corpulent. It is probably from 
internal conformation, that this property of rapid fattening is de¬ 
rived 
The advantages and disadvantages of fattening cattle and sheep, 
at least to the extent frequently practised at present, are points that 
have of late attracted much public attention. But any controversy 
on that subject can only arise from want of proper discrimination. 
Eat meat is unquestionably more nourishing than lean, though to 
digest this oily matter, there are required, on account of its difficult 
solubility, a good bile, much saliva, and a strong stomach ; conse¬ 
quently none, excepting those who are in the most vigorous state 
of health, or who are employed in hard labor, can properly 
digest it. Though fat meat, however, is unfit for general consump¬ 
tion, yet experiments in the art of fattening animals, are likely to 
promote useful discoveries ; and though, in the course of trying a 
number of experiments, errors and excesses may be committed, yet 
on the whole, advantage may be derived from the knowledge thus 
to be obtained. As the bone also gains but little in the fatting ani¬ 
mal, and the other offal becomes proportionably less, as the animal 
becomes more fat, the public has not sustained much loss by over 
fatted animals. To kill even hogs till they are thoroughly fat, is 
exceeding bad economy. An ox or cow, though the little flesh it 
has may be of good quality, yet presents, when lean, little but skin 
and bone ; and if slaughtered in that state would neither indemnify 
the owner for the expense of breeding and maintaining it, nor be¬ 
nefit the public. A coarse and heavy fleshed ox, which would re¬ 
quire a very long time, and much good food to fatten, may be 
slaughtered with most advantage while rather lean. It is not, how¬ 
ever, so much the extent of fat, as the want of a sufficient quantity 
of lean flesh, of which the consumer complains ; for it cannot be 
doubted, that the lean flesh of a fat animal is superior in quality, 
and contains more nourishment, than any other meat. 
Handling well. The graziers and butchers in various parts of 
the kingdom have recourse to the hand, and the feeling of the skin, 
or cellular membrane, for ascertaining a disposition to fatten ; and 
since Bakewell directed the public attention so much to breeding, 
that practice has become more generally known. Handling cannot 
easily be defined, and can only be learnt by experience. The skin and 
flesh of cattle, when handled, should feel soft to the touch, some¬ 
what resembling that of a mole, but with a little more resistance to 
the finger. A soft and mellow skin must be more pliable, and more 
easily stretched out, to receive any extraordinary quantity of fat 
and muscle, than a thick or tough one. The rigid-skinned animal 
must therefore always be the most difficult to fatten. In a good 
sheep, the skin is not only soft and mellow, but in some degree 
elastic. Neither cattle nor sheep can he reckoned good, whatever 
their shapes may be, unless they are first rate handlers. The im¬ 
proved short horned breed, besides their mellowness of skin, are 
likewise distinguished by softness and silkiness of hair. Too great 
a length, however, ought not to be aimed at, since it is not easy, in 
that case, to preserve a due proportion in the appearance of the 
animal, without which it cannot be considered perfect. 
Lightness of offal. An animal solely bred for the shambles, should 
have as little offal, or parts of inferior value, as possible, (consis¬ 
tently with the health of the animal,) and consequently a greater 
proportion of meat applicable as food for man. This, therefore, the 
skilful farmer will also keep in view in selecting his species of stock. 
— Loudon's Encyclopaedia of Agriculture. 
ON THE USE OF LIME AS A MANURE.— By M. Puvis. 
Translated for the Farmers’ Register from the Annates de 1' Agriculture Fran- 
caise, of 1835.— ( Continued from page 101.) 
QUANTITIES APPLIED. 
24. The quantities of first as of second dressings of lime, vary 
with the consistence of soils : they ought to be small on light and 
sandy soils—and may, without ill consequences, be heavy on clay 
soils. 
The dose ought to vary according as the soil is more or less per¬ 
vious to water, or as drained well or ill by its texture. Small ap¬ 
plications to soils from which the superfluous water does not pass 
easily, are but little felt; but if the dressing is heavy, and the plough¬ 
ing deep, the lime aids the draining and adds to the healthy state of 
the soil. It may be conceived that the quantity of lime ought also 
to be increased with the annual quantity of rain that falls—because 
in proportion to that quantity ought the openness of the soil, and its 
fitness for draining, to be extended. 
Nevertheless, the practices of the departments of the North and 
of La Sarthe seem to indicate the average dressing which suits in 
general for land: thus the liming of the North, which every ten or 
twelve years gives to the soil 40 hectolitres of lime to the hectare, 
or a little more than three hectolitres a year, agrees with that of La 
Sarthe, which gives eight or ten hectolitres every three years. The 
first plan gives at one dressing what the other distributes in four: 
as both make a like average, it may be thence inferred that the 
earth demands annually three hectolitres, [323 bushels to the acre,] 
to sustain its fecundity. But as neither the soil nor the plants con¬ 
sume all this quantity of lime, it is to be believed, that at the end of 
a greater or less length of time, the soil will have received enough 
to have no more need of it for a certain space of time. 
MANNER OF TREATING LIMED LANDS. 
25. After having, by liming, given the soil a great productive 
power, having put it in condition to produce the most valuable crops, 
which are often also most exhausting, it is necessary to husband 
these resources—to give manure in return for the products obtained 
—to employ as litter, and not as food, the straw, now increased by 
one half—to raise grass crops from the soil now fitted to bear them 
with advantage—in short, to modify the general plan, and the detail 
of the culture according to the new powers of the soil, the prices of 
commodities, and to local conveniences. 
However, it is not necessary to hurry the change of the rotation. 
Such an operation is long, difficult, very expensive, and ought not 
to be executed but with much deliberation. 
EFFECTS OF LIME ON THE SOIL. 
26. The effects of lime, although similar to, are not identical with, 
those produced by marl; and the qualities of soils limed, differ in 
some points from those of natural calcareous soils. The grain from 
limed land is rounder, firmer, gives less bran, and more flour, than 
that from marled land : the grain of marled land is more gray, gives 
more bran, and resembles that made upon clover, though it may be 
preferable to the latter. The grain of a limed soil is more like that 
from land improved with drawn ashes. Limed land is less exposed 
to danger from drought than marled land, on soils naturally calca¬ 
reous. The crop is not subject to be lodged at flowering time, 
when the sowing was done in dry earth. 
27. In limed earth, weeds and insects disappear. The earth, if 
too light, acquires stiffness, and is lightened if too clayey. The sur¬ 
face of the argilo-silicious soil, before close and whitish, is made fri¬ 
able, and becomes reddish, as if rotten: it hardens and splits with 
drought, and is dissolved by the rains which succeed. This sponta¬ 
neous loosening of the soil facilitates greatly the labor of the culti¬ 
vator, the movement of the roots of the growing plants, and the re¬ 
ciprocal action of the atmosphere upon the soil, which remains open 
to its influence. 
